Page 35 of Along Came Summer

“No, let him be. We still have time before we close. Maybe he’s come back here looking for some sort of closure.”

Nessa sighs and gives me a hug before she disappears into the kitchen to get her belongings and exit through the back door. At least one of us will end the night on a good note. Twenty minutes go by, and I’ve done everything I need to close up, except go over to the handsome broody prince and tell him it’s time to leave.

I'm not sure why; I don’t even know this guy, but the empathetic side of me is drawn to him and wants to help. The crestfallen look on his face is truly saddening. I’ve never had my heart broken, so I can’t imagine what he must be feeling right now… if that even is the reason for his misery.

I’ll give him another fifteen minutes and then politely tell him I need to close up. With that in mind, I walk back to the kitchen and start packing up the leftover cupcakes, desserts, and pastries into boxes so they’re ready for when Jack comes by to collect them—he's the care manager of Safe Haven Children's Shelter located down the road. It’s a small charity organisation, but they can house up to fifteen children. That’s fifteen children who are off the streets, with a warm place where they can fill their stomachs and have a safe place to put their heads down and sleep at night.

So, at the end of each day, I put together a variety of treats so that children living at the shelter can enjoy them. Funded mainly by volunteers, Safe Haven offers temporary housing and care for orphaned children or those who have suffered abuse at home until they can find a permanent home. Luckily, many local businesses, including myself, pitch in with donations–be it time, money, food, or clothes–so that Safe Haven can keep providing for those children and give them the necessary care they need.

Once the boxes are packed, I walk back to the front to see if McBroody is still there, but I see his seat empty and the cake still sitting uneaten on the table. I’m not sure why, and it’s likely just my unremitting need to help people, but a very small part of me feels a touch sad to find him gone.

I don’t know what I was hoping for, but I quickly shake off the feeling and walk over to collect the plate with the cake when I spot something on the chair.

Holy crap, it’s hisphone. It must have slipped out of his pocket before he left. Setting the plate on the table again, I walk toward the door and open it, stepping outside to see if I could catch him if he’d just left, but he's gone.

Sighing, I walk back inside and look down at his phone in my hand. It comes to life, and his home screen is a photo of a beautiful Labrador retriever puppy mid-run. My heart flutters in my chest. Aww, he’s a dog lover. Well, at least I’ll see him again when he notices his phone is missing and hopefully comes back to collect it. If not, I’ll have to try and find him to return it.

The thought of seeing McBroody again shouldn’t excite me, but it does. No guy has ever had this kind of effect on me, let alone someone I’ve seen twice and not even spoken to.

Ugh, stop being such a simp, Summer!

“Levi, I’m sorry, I really am, but we can’t keep seeing each other.”

Mira’s words keep circling my mind like a never-ending loop since yesterday afternoon. We were happy. We were back in our blissful bubble. Everything was good, so how the fuck did I wind up losing her?

How did she slip through my fingers again?

After everything that happened between us, she went and chose my brother.

“I’m the one she spent the last three days screwing in Rome. Take that and do with it what you will, but you stay the fuck away from her. Whatever you two had going is done. I’m sure she’s already told you that too by now.”

I shouldn't have ignored the sickening feeling in my stomach, the one that kept telling me my relationship with Mira was doomed from the moment she and Devin got reacquainted. It was right there, staring me in the face. I fucking felt the vibe between them, but I disregarded it. The shared glances I'd catch between them when they thought I didn't notice. It was all there, right in front of my face, but I wasn’t worried because she chose me. I chose to believe in a future that never existed, one I desperately wanted but could never have.

They were inevitable. They always have been, and this whole time I was nothing more than Devin’s placeholder until he was available, and she proved that by dropping me for him the second Megan broke up with him.

I can’t even be angry with Mira. What right do I have when we agreed to be non-exclusive? I wasn’t her boyfriend, and she made it clear from the beginning that we were just friends. I foolishly agreed because I wanted her, and I thought she wanted me but just needed time.

But she didn’t.

That’s why she wouldn’t sleep with me this time around and she stopped when things got hot and heavy between us, because deep down, it was never me she wanted. It was my brother.

I’ve been sitting in that damn bakery she loves so much, staring at her favourite cake for the past two hours, trying to figure out how things got so fucked up. I can’t just jump on the jet and fly back home to Australia because my dad has cancer and needs me here, but at the same time, I can’t stomach the thought of seeing my brother with Mira… which I will have to eventually because let’s be honest they’re going to end up together.

I’m hurt, and I’m enraged more with myself than her.

This is my fault—I should have known better than to cross that line with her. I should have kept my mouth shut and my dick in my pants, and then maybe I wouldn’t be sitting here feeling like a complete mug.

I wouldn’t have had to stand there and listen to her making bullshit excuses as to why we couldn’t be together after she spent three days fucking my brother in Italy. My anger boils over when I picture them together, and I get the urge to pick up the plate with her favourite cake and heave it through the goddamn window and flip over the table. Instead, I force myself to get up and leave before I do something destructive and start trashing some unsuspecting person's bakery.

The muscles in my thighs thrum angrily with every step I take. I’m not an angry person. This isn’t me, but fuck I want to put my fist through a fucking car window. Walking around the corner, I find an alley away from the bustling street, press my back against the wall and draw in a couple of deep breaths to refocus and reframe my thoughts.

I draw in a deep breath through my nose.

I know that anger is here.

I exhale slowly.

I know that the anger is not me.

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